I had cordial private discussions with the congressman, including over breakfast at the Fed. He was certainly sincere, but his thinking was dogmatic. He lacked a clear understanding of how the historical gold standard actually had worked (as opposed to an idealized version).

Actually Murray Rothbard ("staff economist") "ghost-wrote" the minority report, barely taking into account the sensibilities of the "golf price fix" fake gold standard advocated by Lehrman. To read it is to know who wrote it.

I seriously doubt that Rand Paul understands the classical gold standard, but that was not my point. His father, Ron, has acquired substantial learning in the 33 or so years since the minority report was issued. On the other hand, Rothbard was in his heyday in the 1980s.

Weren't the problems of the "classical gold standard" with its fractional reserve lending the subject matter of the classical ABCT? I love the "these Austrians ignore the problems with gold in the 1800s" meme, don't you?

BTW, what problem was a "lender of last resort" trying to solve anyway?